


beloved

by peaxhmei



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Just a little tho, M/M, Phan AU, Unrequited Love, only slightly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-09-03 14:38:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8717791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peaxhmei/pseuds/peaxhmei
Summary: be·lov·ed
1. dearly loved
2. a much loved person
or
the one where Dan Howell hates Phil Lester, and Phil Lester hates Dan Howell





	1. Chapter 1

Dan Howell and Phil Lester, or more commonly known as Mr. Howell and Mr. Lester, were the most well known teachers at Thatcher High School.  It wasn’t the fact that Mr. Howell was the only teacher who could make history, an otherwise boring and useless subject, the most fun in the world, or that Mr. Lester could list every element on the periodic table  _ and  _ their atomic masses  _ from memory _ , but the mere fact that they despised each other with a passion equivalent only to a priest’s passion for their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The students, whom both the teachers loved and adored, found the ordeal very funny.  From the first day Mr. Lester waded through the crowded halls of pubescent teens, Mr. Howell hated him.  That cocky grin of his, his snooty suit and tie, the way he walked; it was enough to make a man sick.  In reality, Mr. Howell had no reason for hating on the black-haired man; it was just a hunch.  As soon as Mr. Lester laid eyes on Mr. Howell, however, all feelings were reciprocated.  He didn’t like the way Mr. Howell glared at him.  And he certainly didn’t like the feeling of unease creeping into his stomach.  Mr. Lester felt that there would be some sort of rivalry.  After all, you can’t put two handsome young adults in the same building without expecting at least  _ some  _ sort of competition.

Unbeknownst to the two teachers, the students in the vicinity had picked up on the off-putting tension from them.  It would be a long year for the students,  _ and  _ the newly-made enemies.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2! I almost missed this deadline because of finals but I managed to get it posted at 10! Lmao I suck. Anyways hope you like it :) Thank you so much for the positive reaction to my first chapter! It really encouraged me to continue this :)

Phil stepped into his new classroom, breathing a sigh of relief.  The crowded hallways made him want to implode, and that  _ teacher _ !  Like honestly, what was his deal?  He wouldn't stop glaring.  Pushing those thoughts away, Phil turned to observe his classroom.  Science classrooms are typically different; there are more safety precautions, such as the emergency shower, the toxic waste disposal bin, and the multiple fire extinguishers around the room.  It was a very bland classroom, with white walls and grey tile.  Phil felt that a few posters would help

Students had started to trickle in by the time Phil had put up the last poster.  The bell rang and class began.

“Hey guys!” Phil started. “I'm Mr. Lester, you new honours chemistry teacher.”

He was met with a less-than-enthusiastic chorus of “hellos” and “good mornings.”  

“Aw, come on, you can do better than that!” Phil laughed. “Chemistry is fun!”

A couple students groaned in protest.

“My sister said that this class made her life a living hell,” a blond-haired boy piped up.

“That was with a different teacher!” Phil huffed and crossed his arms. “I suppose if you guys are going to be like this, I'm going to have to show you something that will shock you into enjoying this class.”

The students, now interested, followed their teacher warily with their eyes, who was now strapping on safety goggles and buttoning up a tie-dye lab coat.  Phil walked back up to the demonstration table and leaned against it.

“Before I begin this, how many of you guys have heard a dog bark before?” Phil asked.

Some students scoffed, and the class all raised their hands.

“Good!” Phil clapped his hands.  Okay, well, I can recreate that noise, but I don’t need to use my vocal chords.  I’ll go get my dog.”

The class watched their teacher open a door to a small room, and shortly after, he emerged with a metre-long glass tube, stopped with a plug at the top.

Phil smiled goofily at his students, who were now sitting at their tables with very confused expressions on their faces.  “Meet Benny!  He’s a very good dog.  Benny, sit!”

A few students giggled as Phil sat the tube down on a large test tube rack that was brought out from behind the demo table.

“Now, Benny is a bit gassy today,” Phil said, “So I’m going to give him some water.”  

He unstoppered the tube, poured a pre-measured beaker of water into it, and resealed it.

Phil stepped back to let the students see.  “You see how the water is a bit milky?  It’s because it’s mixing with nitrous oxide, which is,  _ eehhh _ , a generally safe gas.”

“Generally,” Phil heard a student whisper worriedly to their friend.  

“Generally because it won’t kill you on contact, but enough inhaled will cut off oxygen to your brain and give you a stroke,” Phil grinned.  It was funny watching eyes widen across the room.

“Anyways,” Phil said, watching in amusement as the students still gaped at him, “Benny wants juice now, so I’m gonna just…”

He unstoppered the tube again and added a few drops of a clear liquid, and sealed it.  “... drop this in.  Don’t worry, this is carbon disulfide, which is actually  _ very  _ dangerous, which brings me to say, please do not come into the classroom if I’m not in here, unless you really want to die or something.  I’m gonna shake Benny a bit now.”

Phil picked the tube up with both gloved hands and shook the tube back and forth.  “Don’t worry, Benny likes this.  I swear to God, I have dropped him so many times.”

The students laughed.  Phil was glad they were enjoying the demonstration so far.  He made sure to really mix the chemicals in the tube; last time he did this it did not go well.  Phil sat the tube back in place on the test tube rack, and ran to turn off the lights.

“Now,” Phil said ominously, “We’re going to set Benny on fire!”

He quickly whipped out a lighter, unstoppered the tube, and ignited the chemicals mixed inside.

The students gasped as a bright blue light flooded the room, followed by an ear-splitting barking noise.  The light died down to reveal gaping mouths and wide eyes.  Phil watched in amusement as the students slowly began to regain their thoughts and begin to chatter excitedly about what they had just saw.  

“Benny had a good time.  Now, I’m going to say it again,” Phil said.  “Hey guys, I’m Mr. Lester, your new honours chemistry teacher!”

This time, the class erupted in greetings and shouts of how cool the demonstration was.  

“That’s more like it!” Phil cheered.  “Now, let’s get on with introductions.  Let’s go around the room, say your name, your age, and one cool thing about yourself.  I’ll go first.  You know my name, but I’m twenty-eight, and I’m slightly psychic.”

The class giggled, and Phil began to choose people around the room to speak.

Introductions went smoothly, with Phil learning more and more about his students.  Halfway through, he realized that he would have to do the exact same thing for seven periods.  Seven periods is seven hours.  He began to appreciate his past high school teachers.

Class went on, with him explaining the syllabus, the layout of class, and the curriculum.  The class was honours, so Phil wasn’t really surprised with the influx of questions and smartass comments.  By the time the bell rang, Phil was already exhausted.

“See you tomorrow!” Phil yelled after his students. “Don’t forget to turn in your syllabi on Wednesday!”

He collapsed into his chair at his desk, taking a deep breath, shortly before being interrupted again by the bell.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, and went to the door to let the students in.  This class was a general class, so he wasn’t surprised when the first boy to walk in slapped another on the back, guffawed, and yelled “gay!” for everyone to hear.  Phil rolled his eyes, wanting to yell at the boy, but he held himself back, not wanting to make a lasting bad impression. 

He made the same introductions, but with more stupid remarks from these students than last period.  The demonstration went well again, but with less of an interested reaction than before.  Phil decided that he like the previous class better.

Phil’s next class was an advanced placement class; he didn’t do the demonstration, as they were all juniors and seniors.  He was sure that they had seen cooler demos before.

Finally, after three long hours, Phil reached his planning period.  He sat down at a desk to regather himself, and shortly after, gathered a few things to take to the teachers’ lounge.  Phil planned on meeting a few of his fellow teachers during his break.

He walked down the long hallways, getting a bit confused here and there, and greeting wandering students with a smile and a wave.  

“Lounge, lounge, lounge,” Phil murmured to himself, counting the room numbers.  “Lounge!”

He stepped inside, to find a brown-haired teacher talking to a middle-aged woman.  

“... So I was doing introductions in my class when the chemistry teacher next to me does some dumbass experiment.  It’s so loud, and — ”

Both teachers stopped mid-conversation to stare at Phil.

Phil put on a nervous smile, off-put by the sudden tension in the room.  This was the teacher that was glaring at him in the hallways.

“How do you do?” the man asked coldly.  “I’m Dan Howell.  Mr. Howell to my students. I’m assuming you’re the new chemistry teacher?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Twitter @imphanicking and on Tumblr @dumpling-dan for updates and screaming about dnp and anime
> 
> Have a good week!
> 
> ~Clara <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im soooooooooooooo sorry for the like, eight month hiatus i put this on!! im really sorry i left you guys on a cliffhanger for more than half a year!! a lot has changed since when i first posted this fic. it started off as this idea of grandeur i had put in my head, but not even a chapter into the fic, i realized i had no plan, no motivation, and a lot of schoolwork. so after i forced myself to post a very bad chapter two, i stopped writing. i got about halfway through chapter three when i realized, "wow, this sucks." so i stopped. i had no idea what to do. i had too much to focus on, and what used to be an outlet for my stress and problems became my stress and problems. i always knew i would come back to writing this, but i just didnt know when. to add to everything, i started losing interest in dan and phil. as much as i still love and adore them, their content stopped interesting me. even now, i dont even watch their gaming channel videos. i only watch their individual channels, and if they post collabs. they just kind of... drifted out of my life. i changed my blog and my twitter; im now delving into the world of kpop haha. BUT FEAR NOT. maybe around halfway through june, i realized that i wanted to pic up writing again. it started with me writing a kpop fanfiction, but then i noticed beloved sitting there in the corner. i set my mind to it. i want to finish it. i dont want this to be one of my many wips that have disappointed people who actually enjoyed them. i wrote a plan for beloved, and now i have a clear understanding of where i want this to go. thank you so much to those of you (probably none of you lmfao) who are still waiting for an update, and i apologize again for the extremely long wait. so, without further ado, here is chapter three!!

Dan was right in the middle of telling a cheesy history joke when a large banging noise interrupted him. He frowned. Mrs. Smith never did demonstrations. Dan shrugged and went on.  


“Sorry guys, I'll tell off Mrs. Smith later today for interrupting the best joke ever.”

He continued, with no further interruptions, until second period rolled around. Again, he was so close to reaching the punchline of the joke when another bang shook the classroom.

“Does Mrs. Smith have a dog?” a girl asked with her hand raised. Now that Dan thought of it, it did sound like a dog. A very large one, if precision was necessary. 

Dan frowned. “Not that I know of, but I'll see later. You know what, we're just going to ignore it, and I'm going to actually finish my joke this time.”

 

At the end of the period, Dan got up to go see what the noise was, because one more fucking interruption would make him lose his mind. He put one of his two planning periods right before lunch to optimize his internet-surfing, but he decided instead to check out the noise and maybe go to the teachers’ lounge.

He walked into the hallway, where hundreds of smelly high school students were milling about, rushing to their next classes before the bell rang. The science classroom was right next to Dan’s classroom, so he didn't have to walk too far. He reached the door and stealthily peeked in, making sure as to not get caught. Dan was surprised to see a man instead of an old white-haired lady. He wrinkled his nose when the teacher turned around, revealing large, dorky black glasses perched upon a slightly crooked nose, thin lips, and blue eyes. This was the teacher in the hallways earlier in the morning. Dan narrowed his eyes; now Dan had even more of a reason to dislike him. He interrupted his class. Dan was just about to burst into the room and cuss him out when someone cleared their throat behind him. He turned around to see a senior girl, who he knew as Margo; he had had her since freshman year.

“Mr. Howell,” Margo said cautiously, “Are you spying on the new chemistry teacher?”

Dan blushed involuntarily. It wasn’t like he was actually embarrassed. Dan laughed at himself a bit. No way. “Spying” made it sound like he had a thing for the unknowing teacher.

“N-no!” Dan stuttered — damn it — and backed away from the door. “Of course not! I just saw something out of the corner out of my eye and I went to see what it was.”

There was a glimmer in Margo’s eye. “It's okay. Your secret is safe with me.”

Dan stared, dumbfounded at the girl who slowly walked away, her hands in her pockets. This was bad. Very, very bad. If Margo spread rumours, bad things would happen. Dan decided not to go to the teachers’ lounge. 

 

Dan found himself using his first planning period to play very intense games of Candy Crush and make crazed, yet pointless, arguments on Tumblr. There was no loud noise this time; maybe there were just accidents. Still, Dan wouldn't let it go; he couldn't let someone interrupt his class like that, especially on the first day. Dan would find a way to get back at this new, probably self-obsessed, chemistry teacher. 

 

He decided to spend his next planning period in the teachers’ lounge, to maybe talk to some if his co-workers. A couple teachers in the school were his friends, and Dan hadn’t seen them in person since May. Well, he had seen Chris, the algebra teacher, at a party (let's just say that the morning-after was not fun), but he was really hoping to see Mrs. Walton. Dan loved to talk to her. She was an older teacher, as most teachers at the school were less than forty, and that brought a lot of respect for her. Apparently, Mrs. Walton had been teaching at the school since the 1980’s, when it had first been founded. 

 

Dan walked into the teacher's’ lounge, just as the tardy bell rang, and, lo and behold, Mrs. Walton was sitting there, chatting with a man Dan didn’t recognize.

“Daniel!” Mrs. Walton clapped her hands. “How nice to see you!”

Dan smiled, happy to see an old friend again. “How are you Mrs. Walton? How was your summer?”

“Lovely, lovely,” Mrs. Walton grinned, her eyes crinkled with happiness, magnified by her glasses. “Come, sit with us. This is PJ! He’s such a nice boy.”

Dan reached out a hand and sat down. “Dan Howell,” he said while shaking PJ’s hand, “Nice to meet you! I’m the history teacher. I haven’t seen you around before; is this your first year?”

“PJ Liguori,” PJ responded, “And yeah, I’m the new art teacher. This school is amazing; I love it!”

Dan hated small-talk, so he zoned out for the whole conversation centering around PJ’s probably-interesting life; he just didn’t have the energy to listen. Dan didn’t snap out of it until he heard the last millisecond of the bell and saw PJ stand up with a jolt.

PJ looked up in surprise. “That was fast! Well, my students need me. I have to teach some freshmen what blind contour is.”

With that, the man was scurrying out of the teachers’ lounge and down the hallway. Dan blinked; half of him felt bad for not listening to PJ’s autobiography, but half of him was glad that he didn't actually have to have the baggage of memorizing useless information.

“What are you think about, love,” Mrs.Walton asked, shaking Dan out of his thoughts.

Dan smiled at the old lady. “I don’t know. I'm excited for the new year!” That, of course, was a lie. “Well, aside from having the chemistry class right next to me. Mrs. Smith never did experiments, but of course, the new teacher has to go out of the way to make it as loud as possible. He’s a pain the ass. I was doing introductions in my class when the chemistry teacher next to me does some dumbass experiment. It was so loud, and —

The door opened to reveal a disheveled teacher with large, dorky black glasses perched upon a slightly crooked nose, thin lips, and blue eyes. It was him. Right there in front of Dan, staring at him like he knew something Dan didn’t. As much as Dan wanted to, he knew he had to keep his cool and not blow up at the teacher. He had to take the higher ground. 

“How do you do?” he asked, sitting up and smoothing out his crinkled polo shirt. “I’m Dan Howell. Mr. Howell to my students. I’m assuming you’re the new chemistry teacher?”

Mrs. Walton gave Dan a tight smile, indirectly telling him to keep his cool. She turned back to the teacher. “I’m Mrs. Walton, dear. I’m the senior rhetoric teacher.”

The teacher seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Dan didn’t know why; he didn’t know Dan hated him. 

“It seems there’s at least one kind teacher in this building.” The teacher walked over and shook Mrs. Walton’s hand. “My name’s Phil Lester.”

Dan felt every muscle in his body clench up in anger and hatred. How dare he?

He turned curtly to Dan. “Mr. Lester to my students, and yes, I’m the new chemistry teacher. Do you mind if I join you?”

Dan breathed in sharply, feeling anger boil in his stomach. High road, high road, high road, he had to chant to himself.

“So how was the first half of the day?” Dan asked, trying to remove any awkwardness. “I bet it was a bit rough. First-time teachers never know what to do.”

Phil managed to keep a stoic and cold face. “My students loved my demonstration.”

Dan sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, starting at Phil. “Your demonstration, huh? I guess that’s what I heard from my room. It interrupted a few jokes.”

Brightened eyes turned narrow and dark as Phil leaned forward to look at Dan more closely. “I guess you’ll have to get used to it. It’ll happen a lot.”

High road, high road, high road, Dan chanted again. He exhaled loudly, thinking to himself. He decided that Phil was an arrogant bastard. He really wanted to get rid of him, but he knew it was impossible. Even Dan wouldn’t try to fire someone. He wasn’t that much of an asshole.

“You know,” Dan said, “this job gets pretty hard throughout the year. Especially around December through May. Lots of new teachers quit.”

Phil frowned. “I don’t plan to. I value my job and and my students, and I don't want to leave them hanging, you know?”

Dan didn't reply. He just really didn't know what to say. The awkwardness of the conversation made him want to vomit. A heavy silence covered the teachers’ lounge like a blanket; it was suffocating. He had to get out.

He stood up with a slam of hands on the flimsy fold-up table. Mrs. Walton jumped slightly, and Dan would've felt bad if it weren't for the pounding of blood in his eardrums.

“I'm gonna go,” he said, and tried to give Phil the most poisonous look he could muster, “I have lots of classes to plan.”

He didn't hear the weak goodbyes from Mrs. Walton, but threw the door open and stormed down the still-empty hallways.

He didn't even make it to his classroom when he decided it.

Phil Lester was his mortal enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> regardless of how i have changed my urls and content, you can still find me on tumblr @4hobii, and on twitter @4hobiii!! i will answer questions about the au, and dont worry, i still occasionally reblog dan and phil!  
> thank you guys so much,  
> clara <3


	4. Chapter 4

It was homecoming week, and Dan almost hated it as much as he hated Phil.   _ Almost _ .  He participated the competitions and daily themes, by obligation of course, and the incessant begging of his students, but it definitely wasn't his favorite time of year.  He didn't like streamers strewn across the hallway floors, making him trip every three seconds, the ballons that made his already-curly hair even frizzier, and he  _ especially  _ didn't like Phil's high-pitched giggles piercing his ears during homeroom every fucking day.

It was the third day of homecoming week, Wednesday, and he was excited for it to come to a close; however, he knew the worst was yet to come.  The annual Classroom Decorating Competition™ was yet to commence.  Every year, preppy middle-aged mom-teachers would barge into every classroom after their own, over-enthusiastically explaining the rules of their glorified game of  _ Love It or List It _ .  It was the same thing every year.

“Remember, decorate with passion,” Karen Shelley, the Latin teacher would almost scream, “and don't forget to have fun!  Do it for the pizza!”

Dan would always roll his eyes at the last statement.  Literally, he could call the nearest Pizza Hut and ask for three extra-large and extra-greasy pepperoni pizzas for, like, ten bucks, instead of cutting stencils and drawing things he couldn't care less about at the request of his excited freshmen students for about a two percent chance of even getting  _ cheese _ .

Anyways, Dan was forced to participate, whether he wanted to or not, if not by when he signed the job contract that  _ never mentioned arts and crafts _ , then by his ecstatic students.

“I think we should do an aquarium theme,” one of his freshmen bounced excitedly in her chair.  Jesus, it was like he was teaching four year olds.  The odds were against Dan this year; first, the worst science teacher in the world, then having a freshman homeroom?  Bullshit.

He friend slapped her on her shoulder.  “Um, no way, it has to be space themed!”

Dan rolled his eyes for tenth time in the last hour.

“I don't really care what we do, as long as this passes without anyone dying,” Dan said.  

A chorus of moans erupted from the history classroom.  “Mr Howelllll….”

Dan sneered at them, but smiled a little anyways to humour the easily-butthurt fourteen-year-olds.

The class’s complaints were cut short when the door opened.  A boy stood at the doorway of the classroom, eyes wild and crazed.  “Mr. Lester said that we're gonna beat your asses!”

“That's not what I said Jacob!  Also, you have a detention.” a feeble voice none other than  _ Phil  _ piped from the room next door.  Dan gagged.

The boy, Jacob, slapped a hand over his mouth.  “Sorry!  I meant to say that Mr. Lester said to tell Mr. Howell that he won't stop at anything to win!”  Jacob scurried away, slamming the door.

A faint “No I didn't!” trailed off into a giggle.  Dan gagged for a second time.

He narrowed his eyes as the sound of cackling and Phil's god-forsaken laugh continued to flood through every crack in the walls.  He felt the familiar sense of anger pouring into his stomach.  It was  _ on _ .  All sense of resentfulness towards the 2017 Classroom Decorating Competition were sacked for the sake of one purpose: to beat goddamn Phil Lester’s snooty, self-obsessed ass 

“Marissa, Lily, I like your ideas.  We're making a space aquarium.”

 

It took their entire homeroom class  _ and  _ Dan’s lunch period to finish their decorations.  Yes, they had another day to finish before the judging session, but nothing could stop him.  Not when  _ Mr. Lester  _ was involved.  Just thinking the name left a bitter taste on Dan’s tongue.

Nonetheless, Dan stood back to admire his and his students’ work.  Needless to say, he was goddamn proud of how amazing the room looked.  He had sent a couple students down to the art room to fetch an entire roll of dark blue decorating paper, and, much to PJ’s dismay (and Dan's confusion), the students even brought up an entire cardboard box of glow-in-the-dark stars.  Dan didn't complain, of course; he just had to add sending an apologetic email to PJ to his mental notepad.  The decorating paper covered every inch of Dan's classroom, along with speckles of glowing stars, painted white constellations, planets, and, of course, fish.  His students had even gone above-and-beyond to dress up his ironic cardboard cutout of Marco Polo as a deep-sea astronaut.  Fairy lights, which were normally reserved for Christmas, were strung all over the ceiling to imitate the constellations, and to complete their theme, light blue and dark green plastic tablecloths (also “borrowed” from PJ) were taped to the room’s light fixtures to give the room an ocean-y and space-y feel.  The desks were piled in the middle to create some sort of spaceship-cruise-ship.  Dan smiled.  There was no fucking way Phil would win

Except maybe there was. 

After the students moved on to their next class, Dan took the passing period to  _ maybe _ spy on Phil and his room.  It wasn't even spying.  He was just… sizing up the competition.

And boy, did it size up.

Dan’s jaw went slack when his eyes fell on Phil’s room through the tiny slit of glass on the door.  It looked like a jungle.  Quite literally.  They seemed to have the same idea as Dan had with his students.  There was dark green decorating paper lining the walls, and light green plastic tablecloths covered the lights, much like Dan’s classroom.  Up to three desks were piled on top of each other in multiple areas of the room, draped in crumpled dark green and brown fabric to imitate trees.  Actual plants were balanced everywhere; curse Phil for being a science teacher.

Dan was shocked at the work Phil put into his room; however, he, no matter how nervous, still had an inkling that their room would win.  Who could argue against a bloody  _ space aquarium _ ?

“ _ Jacob was right.  You're getting your ass beat _ ,” a voice muttered in Dan's ear.  A shiver ran down his spine, but he managed to keep from twitching violently.  He would know that voice anywhere.   _ Phil Lester _ .  Dan took a hopefully-subtle deep breath before turning to face the slightly-shorter man.  Phil's eyes twinkled and his mouth was curved into a smirk in a way that made Dan want to drop kick him into the sun.

“What do  _ you _ want?” Dan hissed under his voice, seething on the inside but maintaining his calm exterior.  At least, he hoped he was.  It was kind of hard when his arch-nemesis was all up in his face, trying (and kind of succeeding, but no one needed to know that) to be intimidating.

Phil laughed dryly.  “What do  _ I  _ want?  Can you really be asking that when you're standing outside my classroom?  You spying or something?  I wouldn't be surprised, seeing that you've done it before.”

The hallway’s temperature rose about ten degrees.  If Margo was behind this, Dan was going to fucking  _ expel _ her.  As much as Dan wanted to snap back at Phil with accusations of being so goddamn annoying, he found himself at a loss for words.  So he just stood there, mouth opening and closing like an  _ idiot _ in a pathetic attempt to gather his thoughts into words.  But for some reason, his normally-amazing comebacks didn't work.

“Don't think I didn't notice you looking into my classroom on the first day of school,” Phil smirked and continued.  “I don't mind.  I'm actually  _ flattered _ that you think my room is obviously better than yours.”

“ _ Your  _ room?!” Dan finally spat out.  He knew that this conversation was going nowhere, but the rush of anger and frustration was bubbling over.  “You're ridiculous, that's what you are.  Your room isn't  _ shit _ compared to mine. I---”

Phil laughed, and Dan wanted nothing more than to have him fired.  “Have fun winning last place, Daniel.”

He turned briskly to walk away.  He was about to turn a corner when he turned back around to face the gaping younger teacher.  “Oh, and next time you want to spy on my room, try not to do it when I have class.”

“Holy  _ shit _ ,” a student whispered.

Dan whipped his head around so fast his neck cracked.  “ _ Detention _ ,” he hissed with malice, and turned back around to stalk down the hallway filled with hushed voices and pointing fingers.

~

Phil made a decision after he found Dan snooping around his classroom: he would beat him no matter what.  In all reality, he had actually looked at Dan’s classroom as well without the other man knowing.  He wouldn’t admit it, obviously, but he really wanted to know after Dan stormed down the crowded hallways.  Phi had been a bit worried that he had gone to far, but he remembered the age-old saying, “Fight fire with fire.”  Of course, he was a bit taken-aback by how good Dan’s classroom was, but that didn’t stop him from feeling confident that him and his class would win the supposedly-infamous Classroom Decorating Competition.

 

Phil paced nervously, trying not to rip any paper, as Mrs. Shelley inspected his room carefully.  Why did this make him so nervous?  It was a silly high school competition to fuel homecoming; it wasn't supposed to take Phil back to what he had felt when he was awaiting his acceptance letter into college.  Maybe it was something external.  Maybe it was Dan.  Phil remembered the sinking feeling in his gut when he had gone out to spy on Dan’s room.  It was definitely Dan.

“Results will be posted tomorrow,” Mrs. Shelley chirped happily, snapping Phil back from his thoughts.  “Great room, darling!”  Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief when she left.

“Oh my god, I totally thought she was going to knock down that tree,” exclaimed a student dramatically, flailing their arms.  “She was breathing so hard on it.”

Phil cackled loudly.  “Now that you say it, she  _ was _ breathing super hard.  Hope she's okay.”

The class laughed collectively at Phil's feigned concern.

“Alright guys,” Phil clapped his hands to get the class’s attention.  “We need to actually get learning.  Let’s just hope my bunsen burner doesn’t burn down our trees.”

 

The room was stifled; a sense of uncertainty lingered in every corner, every nook, and every crannie.  It was suffocating as long, delicate fingers gripped a small slip of paper.  Everyone’s breath suspended midair, anticipating the long-awaited results of the 2017 Classroom Decorating Competition.

“The winner is…” Mrs. Shelley dragged out the last word, milking the reactions of the assembly of almost-crazed students and teachers.

“Mr. Dan Howell and his homeroom class!” 

Silence.

And then cheers erupted from all around the auditorium, loud screams and shouts bouncing off the walls.

Phil’s shoulders slumped in defeat.  He was so sure…

“ _ WAIT _ !!” a voice screeched through the microphone; feedback rang through the room, making everyone cringe.  “There’s another winner!”

_ What _ ?

“Mr. Phil Lester and his homeroom class will be sharing the prize with Mr. Howell!  Congratulations to both classes; the pizza will be delivered tomorrow during your extended homeroom class.”

And with that, the assembly went on in shocked silence from both rival classes.

Needless to say, there was quite the dispute over who got the pineapple pizza.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :~) the plot thickens!! 
> 
> also, if it's hard to tell, a double space is a time-skip, and a little "~" is a POV switch!
> 
> as always, you can find me on tumblr @4hobii and on twitter @4hobiii :D
> 
> have an amazing day lovelies!!  
> ~clara <3


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